


Of Bridges

by EmpyrealFantasy



Series: Love is About the Software [3]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Explicit Language, Feels, M/M, Spoilers for Battle of Bunker Hill, Spoilers for Father/Institute, Working Out My Feelings Through Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 09:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5492603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmpyrealFantasy/pseuds/EmpyrealFantasy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.</p><p>[Can be read stand-alone.  Response to the game's oversight in not allowing/including any character reaction to the Institute situation in general, let alone the time on the roof when you can have a companion right there with you.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Bridges

**Author's Note:**

> This series is likely just going to be my go-to "Game being a dick? Write a sequel!" / "Want to write something kinky without leaving open-ended how they got to the dirty bits? Use this series!" series.
> 
> And thus, when I realized that the game had no intention of having reaction scenes, ways to explain, or even just variances in paths when you choose one path or another (like, you know, not just accepting the status quo of the Institute) I had feels. These feels have not ceased in the time since. Had this half-finished for a week or two, but in writing a soulmate AU of all things (whaaaaaat, Empy, what are you doing? You have no time for this. Why did you read the kinkmeme, Empy? Why do you keep starting prompts, Empy? STOP IT, EMPY!) I came across a plot point that ran me headfirst into how pissed I still was at lack-o-reaction.
> 
>  
> 
> **Thus, here's 1k of established Nick/Nate getting to meet Father. The end. No plot here.**

A benefit of his hardware was that he was highly sensitive to electricity.  Oncoming storms, unused sources of power, faulty wiring.  He was usually the first to know when a rad storm was approaching just in a combination of his internal Geiger counter and this sense for voltage.  It’d helped a lot in his Handyman days as well around Diamond City.

So, after a week of no word, when he felt a charge building in his circuits and could swear he could taste ozone for all that he didn’t have taste buds, Nick knew that Nate was (thank god) finally returning to them.

He shouted to Preston and Sturges and took off running, hand holding his hat to his head as wind picked up from nowhere.  The little shack that they’d erected around the sensitive components of the Signal Interceptor was on the outskirts of the settlement, but even from here Nick could see the bolts of blue lightning sparking across the beam emitter.

The sound of the machine activating was nearly deafening.  Both Preston and Sturges had their hands clapped to their ears against the whine and earth-shaking crack as the light built to blinding white.  Nick grounded himself with a hand on the rubber rod Nate had constructed next to the console so he could stay near.

After all the buildup, once the crack of the sound barrier faded it was over, the air still charged with static but nothing having changed but for the addition of a familiar silhouette.  Sturges and Preston were cheering the success; they’d all been quietly avoiding the building fear that the Interceptor hadn’t worked at all and that Nate was lost to them.  Nine days without a single message or sighting of him had left them all silently fearing.  But here was Nate, back and apparently in one piece.

“Thank god, Dollface.  You had us worried.” Nate didn’t react.  Didn’t move.  Stayed standing with his shoulders hunched, eyes on the ground.  Nick approached cautiously. “Nate?”

Pale green eyes rose to meet his and Nick’s brow furrowed at the tears obviously streaming down his face.  He hopped up onto the platform and grabbed the man by the shoulders. “Hey, what happened?”

Nate stared for long moments before scrubbing at his face, shaking his head. “There’s so much I have to tell you,” he rasped. “But there’s no time.  We have to go; the Institute is going to Bunker Hill to wipe out the synths the Railroad has there.  We need to warn them.”

It was hours before Nick could think again. They had been ducking under gunfire and sneaking through hundreds of people fighting on three fronts.  Somehow not a single combatant came after them.  When he’d pointed this out, the pained cast to Nate’s face had gotten darker.  It had gotten worse when they’d reached the basement and a Courser had approached, walking up to Nate without a hint of threat.

“Nate, what is going on?” he hissed.

“Ah, here they are.  Excellent,” the Courser said, nodding.  One of the four synths in the room began sobbing in terror.  Nick couldn’t take his eyes off Nate, who looked pale and ill. “Issue the reset codes and we will return presently.”

Nate closed his eyes and exhaled, frown deepening.  He turned and stepped toward the synth that was crying, a hand lightly falling onto his shoulder. He screamed. “No, please!  I’ll do anything!”

“Shh, it’s all right.  I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Please, please don’t make me go back!”

“Nate…” Nick said with horror, stepping back away from his lover.

Nate glanced over and the pain in his face made Nick flinch.  The human turned back to the cowering synth and sighed. “I’m not making you go back.”

“What? This is by order of the Director.  These units must be returned to the Institute,” the Courser said in a monotone. “I cannot allow you to-“

Nate turned and raised his shotgun.  He called it his ‘leave no one to bitch about how loud it is’ gun.  He fired rapidly at the courser, barely giving it time to raise its own rifle in response.  It never even managed to activate its integrated Stealth tech.

Even the crying stopped in the silence following, leaving Nate with his gun limp at his side and sagging shoulders.  Nick approached warily.  “Sweetheart?”

“Come on.  There’s someone I want you to meet.”

He followed the slump of Nate’s shoulders out through the basement, back into the slowly dissipating rad storm they’d arrived in Bunker Hill to.  He had suspicions that something was quite wrong, but he couldn’t put the pieces together.  As Nate continued silently out the gates, he couldn’t hold back anymore. “What is going on, Nate?”

“I found Shaun.”

He sucked in a breath, eyes wide.  He stalled in the middle of the road, watching Nate’s posture and the way he didn’t even glance back.  He jogged to catch back up with a cringe on his face.  “I assume…” he trailed off, sighing.  “I assume it isn’t good news?”

Nate’s laugh was more like a sob. “I want you to meet him before—“ The next sob wasn’t even masquerading as a laugh, shoulders shaking.  “Please.”

There were so many questions, but Nick couldn’t bring himself to ask as they continued down the wrecked roads.  Instead he wrapped his hand around Nate’s and squeezed, keeping it there when Nate returned it with a death grip. 

They reached the ruins they’d searched when looking for a Courser to build the Signal Interceptor.  Nate silently led the way through the building, up staircase after staircase to the roof.  Nick could hear fighting in the building, but Nate ignored it.

The sun was setting as they exited onto the roof of the building.  The crumbled remains of the skyline stood in stark relief to the orange and pinks of sunset.  And more stark was a man standing on the roof, white coat pristine.  Nick glanced between the older man and Nate, horror dawning.

“Son,” Nate said morosely as they approached, hands jammed in his pockets.

“You know,” the man said, looking out at the horizon.  “In all my years I’ve never set foot outside the Institute. Not once since the day they brought me here.  I’ve never had a reason. But now, this just confirms the truth I’ve always known: the Commonwealth is dead.  There’s no future here.  The only hope for humanity lies below.”

“It’s easy for you to believe that when you’ve had every opportunity afforded to you,” Nate said, voice toneless.  “Not so much for those who’ve had to struggle to just survive.”

The man turned with a glare and Nick sucked in a needless breath.  Those eyes were unmistakable.  “Father.  I am sorry you feel that way.” His eyes cut to Nick and a disgusted expression overtook his face. “What is this you’ve brought with you?”

Nick glanced with him back to Nate, who stood staring at the ground for long moments. It meant they both witnessed the transformation as he stood, straightening his spine and setting his face into a blank expression. “This, Shaun, is my lover Nick.  Nick, this is my son, Shaun.  The Director of the Institute.”

Horror.  So much horror.  That was the only word he could find for the feeling that lanced through him.  He raked his eyes over the man, at least fifteen years Nate’s senior, and implications began piling up at lightning speed.  His processors might as well have been smoking they were racing so quickly. Damn, but this had to be nearly the worst outcome possible for Nate.

“Your—Father, what is this?”

“This is why we’re parting done, Shaun.  This is why I can never, ever believe what you do.  I tried to give you a chance.  I met your Directorate, I listened to your vision, I even helped get that criminal synth from Libertalia.  But you asked me to basically slaughter four innocents today for no discernable reason.  You wanted me to—to let you erase who they were.  I can never believe that synths are so beneath me that they don’t deserve to choose for themselves, Shaun.  Even if I didn’t love Nick, I just can’t believe that.”

Nate stepped back, grabbing blindly for Nick’s hand.  He met him halfway and was glad his hand was not properly flesh and bone, since Nate squeezed hard enough to nearly make the metal creak. Shaun stared at them, eyes so like his father’s flicking back and forth between them. 

“Can’t we discuss this? Despite your… misconceptions about the nature of synths, I believe we can come to an understanding.”  The look of revulsion on the man’s face as he considered the pair of them would have been comical if not for every circumstance surrounding the situation.

“If you’re willing to actually adjust your ideals, knowing that I can’t follow you as things are, we can talk.  But if you think you have to keep replacing people, destroying humans and synths that oppose you, and can’t open your mind… I will fight you.  I have to.”

Shaun’s lips were pursed, his arms crossed over his chest.  He shook his head slowly. “How utterly disappointing.  I wish you would listen, but I can see that you do not plan to.”

“I did listen.  I just can’t agree.”  Nate’s voice was rough, his breathing hitched. “Goodbye, Shaun.”

“So be it.”  With a crackle of electricity and a loud pop, the man was gone, leaving a darkening sky and a cold wind that flicked the ends of Nick’s jacket. 

Nate was just as cold, still and frozen.  His face was as forcibly blank as it had been previously, but tears once more shone on the man’s cheeks.  Nick squeezed back at the hand gripping his, pulling gently. “Sweetheart?”

“I’m fine,” he rasped. “Or, you know, I will be.  This is going to make everything more complicated, though.  Fuck.  The Railroad wanted me to—“

Nick shushed him, tugging until he could wrap his arm around him and pull him into an embrace.  “Forget what anyone else wanted or needed.  You do not need to be the catalyst to every change, all right?  Others can do the work for a while.  Let’s head up to Sanctuary and get away for a bit?”  Nate deserved the chance to let the information sink in, to grieve for the son he’d sacrificed so much for.  Nick’s fingers clenched at his side over the shit hand the man had been dealt.

“I—yeah.  Okay.  Let’s do that.”

He pressed a kiss to the human’s forehead. “You didn’t have a choice.”

“Didn’t I?”  Nate shook his head and pressed his face into Nick’s neck, breathing in and out in purposeful, deep breaths.  After several moments he straightened with a determined expression, kissing the corner of Nick’s mouth and nodding.  “Let’s head back.”

They started back to for the door, pulling their guns back out.  But Nick refused to let the man end this conversation feeling guilty over this. “Well, there’s always a choice.  But I know you, Nate.  There was no other choice for _you._   You couldn’t have closed your eyes and kept up the status quo of the Commonwealth, not even for Shaun.”

Nate didn’t turn back, but Nick could see him sigh.  “No.  No, I couldn’t.  Fuck.”

“You don’t need to do this alone.  That’s what we’re all here for.  We follow you, _I_ follow you because we want to be by your side. Let us help.”  What consequences would come of this twist, Nick couldn‘t even begin to guess.  But he knew he’d go through hell to stay by Nate’s side through it.

Nate’s face was shadowed in the dark of the stairwell, but Nick could see the shine as he smiled, strained but fierce. “If you’re going through hell keep on going, huh?”

And so they would.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Bit of weird canon-tweaking with the use of the Interceptor to return to Sanctuary. Just trying to jimmy reality and canon together. I mean, even the Coursers can't just pop in willy-nilly, they have to call back and forth for pickup. I kike to think that Nate's version means he has to travel to CIT-area and teleport in or use the big metal contraption that's taking up space in Sanctuary, lol.
> 
> Not really important or anything, I just liked that opening is all. :P Ignore me.


End file.
